Introduction – Kyle Gordon Lyrics
Hello, I'm Daniel Radcliffe from CMP, the Centre for Musical Pretension
The album you are about to hear is entitled "Kyle Gordon is Everywhere". It comprises ten of the most significant, compelling, and amusing songs from the last 100 years, as curated by historian and archivist, Dr. H Kyle Gordon
And I am actually Daniel Radcliffe. As CMP's Reinhold Brinkmann Musicologist in residence, I'll be here to guide you through the exceptionally complex music on this anthology, chiming in on occasion to provide colour, clarification, and context. Yes, these interjections are absolutely necessary. Without them, you, the lay-audience, couldn't possibly comprehend Dr. Gordon's brilliant compilational work
Modern listeners be warned though, some of these songs contain elements that are, to put it lightly, exceptionally disturbing. With that in mind, let's turn to our first track, "Mr. Jambo", the 1985 African pop classic by Jewish singer-songwriter, Barry Bergen
Recorded in a remote studio in KwaZulu-Natal, and backed by South Africa's top instrumentalists, the song was unlike anything else in Bergen's career up to that point. He was known primarily as a soft-rock balladeer, most famous for his 1974 easy-listening hit, "Hey Gentle Traveller". It should come as no surprise then that he found African music confusing, and quote "Really hard"
According to bass player Mick/Mix Sultan Gluley, Bergen began the sessions by announcing, quote "I don't know how to play your music, so just do one of your songs and I'll riff something on top of it later."
Despite the song's financial success, many critics condemned Bergen's lyrics as "patronising" and "condescending", with Bergen himself later confessing that, quote "All I knew about Africa was the Babar books and Dr. Kananga". That's the bad guy from Live and Let Die
So, let's take a listen. Winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for music, here is "Mr. Jambo"
